


Riley Griffin and the Terrifying, But Not All Bad, Very Stressful Day

by predilection



Series: Riley and Chase's Extraordinary Adventures in Relationship Building [1]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 11:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4477415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley ends up in another dimension where the rangers don't exist and he's dating Chase.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riley Griffin and the Terrifying, But Not All Bad, Very Stressful Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second contribution to the Chase/Riley fandom. I hope you all enjoy reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Warnings: Riley feels quite a bit of anxiety and nearly has a few panic attacks. There's some angst in this, but this fic also contains some humor and a happy ending so any angst will be short-lived.
> 
> This fic was written during the hiatus of 2015 when only eight episodes of Dino Charge had aired. This is also the point in the series in which this fic takes place. If you're reading this after the hiatus and something in this fic seems inconsistent with later episodes, that's probably why.

Riley barely manages to dodge the monster's dark purple energy pulse. It races past him and slams into a nearby building.

"Chase!" Riley yells out in warning, bringing himself to his feet. All around him, he and the other rangers are fighting so many Vivix that they haven't been able to focus on attacking the monster yet.

"I see it!" Chase yells back, dodging an energy pulse aimed at him. "Can you try to hold off the Vivix while I go after the monster?"

"On it," Tyler replies and Riley joins him in trying to get the attention of the Vivix around Chase while still fighting the ones around them.

Riley is so preoccupied taking care of the Vivix that it's hard for him to pay attention to Chase. He's aware that Chase has managed to get through the Vivix and is taking on the monster directly, but little else.

When Riley is able to spare a moment to watch Chase's fight, he sees the monster grab Chase and effortlessly throw him against a nearby storefront. Chase tumbles to the ground.

Chase is struggling to bring himself to his feet when Riley notices that the monster is holding out one of its arms towards Chase and that that arm is crackling with dark purple energy. Riley evades the attacks of the Vivix nearest to him and runs.

He doesn't have time to get Chase out of the way and he's not certain he can change the trajectory of the attack, so he relies on his instincts -- the ones Chase keeps telling him to hone -- and throws himself between the monster and Chase.

Riley feels the monster's attack hit him -- a sharp pain vibrates through his body like he's a bell being rung -- just as he covers Chase's body with his own. He hears Chase shout his name, but Chase's voice reverberates strangely and he sounds like he's far away.

Then everything goes dark.

*

Riley wakes up lying on his side in a soft bed feeling warm and content. He's half-dozing so it takes him a moment to realize that something is shifting behind him. Then he feels someone press up against his back and wrap their arms around his chest, pulling him backwards into an embrace.

Riley goes from dozing to being fully alert in an instant and his eyes fly open. From his position on the bed, Riley can see that the room he's in has a black carpet that is covered in discarded clothing. The wall he's facing is blanketed in the warm glow of sunlight, presumably coming from a window on the other side of the room.

Heart beating in his chest, Riley carefully pulls the sheets away from himself and peers under them. Riley learns that he's not wearing a shirt and that there are definitely someone's hands circling his torso. He experimentally moves one of his legs and glimpses the green and gold striped pattern of his favorite pajama bottoms.

Riley looks at the wall again, trying not to panic. He has no idea where he is, who he is with or what is going on. He's definitely never been in a situation like this before, and he tries to figure out how this could've happened. The last thing that he can remember is... 

Riley sits up abruptly. The last thing that he can remember is being hit by an attack from one of Sledge's monsters.

Slowly, Riley turns to see who he's in bed with and his mouth falls open when he sees that it's Chase who's tangled in the sheets next to him.

"Chase?" Riley asks.

Chase mumbles something Riley can't make out, but doesn't wake up. 

A low whining noise shifts Riley's attention away from Chase. Riley hears familiar doggy footfalls before Rubik -- his dog, who had he left with his brother and his parents at the ranch -- jumps up onto the end of the bed and curls up on Chase's legs. Rubik regards Riley for a moment, and then yawns and seems to fall asleep.

Riley's breath is coming out in increasingly harsh gasps and his heart is beating so fast and so hard that he wonders how it isn't waking Chase up. He pushes himself to the edge of the bed, gets to his feet and makes his way to the door of the bedroom.

Riley finds himself in a small hallway of what looks like an apartment. He leans against the wall next to the bedroom door and closes his eyes.

With the appearance of Rubik, Riley knows that whatever is going on doesn't have an easy explanation, and he's almost positive that whatever is going on is somehow related to the attack he was blasted with. 

He wonders if it's a dream, but Riley puts a hand over his beating heart and dismisses the thought. It feels too real to be a dream. More likely, Riley figures he's found himself in another world. He knows from Ms. Morgan and Keeper's stories that it's not unheard of for rangers to end up in other dimensions.

The only thing Riley knows for sure is that where ever he is, it definitely isn't home.

*

After standing in the hallway and collecting his thoughts for a long while, Riley no longer feels like he's about to have a panic attack. He explores the apartment he's found himself in and looks for clues that might tell him what's going on. The more he sees, the more he knows he has ended up in an alternate dimension somehow.

The hallway opens up to a living area with a small kitchen attached to it, and even at first glance, many things in the living area give Riley pause.

Chase's skateboards are lined up neatly against the wall, but next to them is Riley's toolbox. A poster from Riley's bedroom -- an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- is beside a poster of a band Riley knows Chase listens to. Riley doesn't recognize the couch, television, or coffee table, but he recognizes one of the chairs at the side of the room. It used to belong to Riley's grandmother and, to his knowledge, should currently be in storage at the ranch.

In the kitchen cupboards, Riley finds his favorite cereal along with some sugary ones he doesn't eat, and in the bathroom, a purple toothbrush and a green toothbrush rest side by side in a cup on the counter.

The apartment only has one bedroom, and quietly, Riley goes back inside it.

Chase and Rubik are still asleep on the bed, but Rubik has moved into the space where Riley was sleeping earlier and is now stretched out comfortably.

Riley can't help but stare at the improbable sight before him as he admits what he's learned from the apartment: in this world, he and Chase are together. 

Riley has had a crush on Chase for months -- ever since the Cavity incident -- but never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd ever see a sight like this: Chase and his dog sleeping in the bed he and Chase obviously share.

Riley feels a small twist of jealousy that some other Riley out there gets to wake up with Chase every morning.

He wonders where this world's Riley ended up. In Riley's own world, maybe?

Riley pulls his eyes away from the bed and spots his own dresser next to an unfamiliar one he figures must belong to Chase. Riley goes over to his dresser, pulls out a fresh set of clothing and changes. 

Riley searches the dresser, but he's unable to find his energem, dino charger or communicator. Riley also goes through the pockets of a pair of his pants he finds on the floor but all he discovers is his cell phone, his wallet and a set of keys with a little raptor charm on them that he assumes are his. He tries the night-stand next, and while what he discovers in it makes him flush, he's still unable to locate any evidence of his ranger activities.

Riley runs a hand through his hair. If he's not a ranger in this universe, how is he supposed to find out information on the monster that attacked him or get help getting home? He considers waking Chase, but the thought of confronting this other Chase makes him so anxious -- what's Riley supposed to tell him? "Hi, I'm from another dimension where I'm not your boyfriend. Your boyfriend is probably in my dimension. Say, are we Power Rangers?"-- that he takes out his phone and examines it instead.

It's the same model and has the same lock pattern as his phone in his world, but the moment it's unlocked, he knows it's not quite his. The background image is a photo of him and Chase. In the picture, Riley is holding the phone out like he's taking a selfie and is smiling at the camera. Chase is next to Riley, but instead of looking at the camera, he's looking at Riley like he's the most important person in the world.

Riley tries to focus on the task at hand. He goes through the phone's contacts. He sees the names of some of his family members, including his brother, but he doesn't recognize most of the names at all. The only non-family names he can identify are Shelby's and Chase's. Tyler and Ms. Morgan are missing. Riley checks for Koda, even though Koda didn't even have a phone in his world, and he's not surprised to discover that Koda, too, is absent. He wonders if Koda even exists in the present day in this universe and feels a chill run down his spine.

Riley opens the gallery on the phone and scrolls through the images. There are photos of Riley in what looks like a computer lab and also photos of Riley and his brother at a family party that Riley remembers going to a year ago.

Mostly, the gallery is filled with hundreds of photos of some combination of him and Chase. Some of them were taken in the apartment, but others were taken at various other locations, including restaurants, the beach, and a skate park. Riley stops scrolling when he hits upon a photo of Chase sleeping in his grandmother's chair with Rubik perched awkwardly on his lap and feels a tug of longing for what this world's Riley already has.

Chase groans, and when Riley looks away from the phone, Chase is sitting up and rubbing his face. He looks around the room for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, but when his eyes land on Riley, his confusion seems to clear. "What are you doing?" Chase asks him, his voice rough with sleep.

"I was looking for something," Riley tells him. 

Chase squints at Riley. "You're scared," he says, and it's not a question but a statement.

"I'm not scared," Riley replies automatically, even though he is.

Chase squints at him some more, and gets out of bed. Clad only in his boxers, he walks up to Riley and cups Riley's face between his hands. He seems to study Riley for a moment and then says, "I know you. I know when you're panicking. Talk to me."

Riley takes a step backwards, pulling himself away from Chase.

"I--" he starts to say, but he doesn't know what to tell this Chase.

"You what?" Chase asks gently and Riley feels his heart start to thud heavily in his chest again.

He rushes past Chase and out into the hall where he finds his shoes and jacket by the front door. He hastily puts them on. He knows he's running away, but right now he needs space -- away from this Chase and this apartment -- to pull himself together and figure things out.

"Riley?" he hears Chase say from the direction of the bedroom. "What's going on? Where are you going?"

The worry he can hear in Chase's voice only increases his own anxiety. Riley takes a deep breath and then another. He tells Chase, "I'll be back," and runs out the door.

*

It's only when he's leaning against the wall of the elevator that Riley asks himself what he's doing and where he's going. He made a mental note of the apartment's unit number and the floor, but he doesn't know what apartment building he's in or where that building is located.

Riley fidgets and shoves his hands into his pockets. His fingers brush against something metal and Riley pulls out the set of keys he found earlier. One of the keys obviously belongs to a car and there's an automatic car door opener for a Honda attached to it. 

Getting an idea, Riley hits the P1 button and takes the elevator down to the parking garage. Once there, Riley presses the door unlock button on his key ring and hears the distant beeping of a car. He does it again and again, following the sound until he discovers a dark green Civic that's only a few years old. It's exactly the type of practical car he'd expect himself to have.

Riley gets inside and decides where he's going to go first.

*

The first thing Riley does when he pulls into the parking lot of the Dinosaur Museum is go through his wallet. His museum staff identification card is absent so Riley buys a regular museum day pass to get inside. He doesn't recognize any of the staff members he encounters even though the dinosaur exhibits look exactly the same as he remembers. He has to stop and stare when he realizes that the Dino Bite Café is missing and that there's a dinosaur-themed playground where it should be.

Riley sneaks through a staff door and quickly discovers that all the hidden entrances to the command center don't exist either.

Riley sits on a bench in the main hall of the museum and takes out the phone. He searches the local news and finds no mentions of monster attacks or Power Rangers. Things in this Amber Beach seem to be fairly peaceful.

Willing to give it one last try, Riley gets back into his car and drives to an area of a nearby forest which, in his world, held another entrance to the cave system the command center was built in. 

Riley doesn't have any cave exploration gear on him, but he finds a flashlight in his trunk, and hikes out to where he remembers the small cave opening being. He finds it -- mostly obscured behind some bushes -- and is about to enter it when someone calls out to him, "I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Those caves are unstable."

In the distance, Riley spots a hiker wearing a large backpack. He looks to be at least two decades older than Riley and even though Riley can't make out his face from this far away, he looks familiar.

"Do you know these caves?" Riley shouts, and jogs in the hiker's direction.

"Quite a bit," the hiker shouts back. "And that one is dangerous."

As Riley gets closer to the hiker, a second hiker comes into view. Riley almost trips when he realizes who it is. "Tyler?" he asks.

The older man looks between Tyler and Riley. "You know my son?" he asks Riley, and Riley's eyes go wide. It's suddenly obvious why the man looked familiar. He looks exactly like the picture Tyler carries around of his father.

"You're Tyler's dad," Riley says, awed, stopping a few feet in front of them.

"Do we know each other?" Tyler asks, regarding Riley curiously.

Riley looks over his shoulder at the cave entrance and sighs. Riley is pretty sure he can't find the command center because it doesn't exist in this world, and neither do the energems or the rangers. Since this world's Riley and Tyler never discovered energems and never became rangers, they mustn't know each other.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asks, and Riley remembers that both Tyler and his father are expecting some sort of answer from him.

"I'm fine. And, uh. Yes, I do know you," Riley tells him. "I mean, we've never met, but. Uh. It's hard to explain." Riley laughs awkwardly. "I gotta go," he says, mostly to himself as he pivots on his heel and jogs towards where he parked his car.

Behind him, he hears Tyler ask, "And who are you exactly?"

Riley turns, jogging backwards as he calls back, "I'm Riley," and offers Tyler and his dad a little wave.

*

Riley sits in his car and googles Ms. Morgan. He quickly learns that she's a professor at Amber Beach College in this universe. He's scrolling through a list of the classes she teaches when he gets a text from Chase. It reads: _Are you alright?_

Riley feels something heavy settle in his chest. He ran out on Chase with no explanation, and Chase is worrying about him.

Riley stares down at his phone, unsure of what to text back. He doesn't want to tell Chase that everything is fine when it isn't.

Riley scrolls up through the previous texts between this world's version of himself and Chase. There are hundreds of them. It seems that he and Chase text each other multiple times a day about all sorts of things including what they're doing, what music they're listening to, what time they'll be home, and what dog breeds they've encountered throughout the day. Also, the texts contain a large amount of blatant flirting between the two of them.

Riley blushes and puts the phone down. He has no idea what to do about Chase so he focuses on what he does have an idea about. He starts his car and drives to Amber Beach College.

*

Riley locates Ms. Morgan's -- technically, Professor Morgan's -- office easily. He knocks on her door but gets no response. 

A student passing by stops to stare at him while he's crouching on the ground to see if there's a light on under her door -- there isn't -- and says, "If you're looking for Professor Morgan, she's teaching a class right now." She gives him the location of a room in an adjacent building.

Five minutes later, Riley peers in through the door of a lecture hall. It's big and Riley guesses it seats at least a hundred people. There are slides of dinosaur skeletons projected on a large screen at the front of the class. 

Also at the front of the class is Professor Morgan, who Riley realizes is glaring directly at him. She pointedly clears her throat. "I would appreciate it if you came to class on time instead of interrupting my lecture. Please find a seat," she tells him, and Riley hears some students start to giggle as he hastily sits down in the back row. 

Riley frowns. It's clear that Professor Morgan, like Tyler, doesn't recognize him. 

Riley sits through the lecture, hoping to talk to Professor Morgan when it's over. Unlike the students sitting around him, Riley doesn't take any notes, but he pays attention to Professor Morgan's detailed lecture on the history of the brontosaurus. It reminds Riley of a book he read on the subject in the museum's gift shop once.

After the class ends, some students stay behind to ask Professor Morgan questions. Riley waits until she's finished talking to them and he's the last person left in the room with her. 

She eyes him warily and tells him, "I don't provide notes. If you want to learn the material in this class, you're going to have to come on time like everyone else."

Riley blinks at her. "What? No. I'm not actually in your class. I just wanted to talk to you."

Professor Morgan raises an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"What do you know about energems? Do they exist?" Riley asks her.

Professor Morgan raises a second unimpressed eyebrow to join the first. "Ener-what?"

"Energems? Ancient power sources given to dinosaurs and brought to Earth by an alien named Keeper?" he tries.

Professor Morgan pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs loudly. 

"You know what? Never mind," Riley tells her, making a quick retreat from the lecture hall. "Let's pretend that this never happened."

*

Riley wanders the campus, and as he starts getting hungry -- he hasn't eaten since before the fight with Sledge's monster, he realizes -- he finds himself in front of a small café. He grabs himself a sandwich, and he's munching on it and trying to decide what to do next when someone drops down into the seat across from him. He's surprised when he looks up to see Shelby sitting at his table.

"Riley!" she says, gently and playfully punching his shoulder. "You didn't tell me you were going to be on campus today!"

Riley, having no idea why he would be on campus in the first place -- was he a student? -- says, "Hi, Shelby. What's up?"

As Riley finishes his sandwich, Shelby tells him about a device she's building that will make it easier to locate fossils of ancient fauna and flora from certain time periods. It sounds a lot like the energem tracking device that Shelby designed and built with Ms. Morgan in his world. Since Riley helped Shelby upgrade it, he's easily able to follow her explanation. 

By listening to her, he gathers that she's finishing up her masters in paleontology. He's happy that this world's Shelby is able to do the work she loves and tells her this. She grins at him, and asks, "What about you?"

"What about me?" Riley asks.

"You kept telling me how you both had the day off," Shelby says. "I thought you and Chase were going to spend it together."

Riley doesn't say anything -- although he wonders about his and Chase's jobs -- and the way Shelby's expression shifts from excited to concerned tells Riley that he and Shelby are good friends in this world.

"What happened?" Shelby asks.

"It's complicated?" Riley tries.

"Did you fight?" she asks. "I know you two had a rough patch when you first decided to move in with each other, but that was at least, what? Ten months ago? I thought you guys resolved everything." 

Riley files that information away, and tells her, "It's not an issue with Chase. Something else is going on."

"Want to talk about it?" Shelby asks, offering him a small smile.

Riley regards her for a moment and asks, "What do you know about alternate dimensions?"

"Alternate dimensions?" she repeats, surprised.

"Yeah," Riley says. "Like other worlds where there might be alternate versions of your life and alternate versions of the people you know."

Shelby, thankfully, doesn't ask Riley why he wants to know. Instead, she seems to ponder his question in silence for a moment, taking it seriously. "According to theoretical physics, alternate dimensions probably exist," she tells him. "There are an infinite number of them that allow for an infinite number of possibilities. Like, if you made a different choice, or something different happened to you, in theory there's an alternative universe where things turned out differently."

This is all information Riley already knew, but it's validating to hear Shelby talk about it so plainly.

"Are you having trouble with a new project idea?" Shelby asks him.

It takes Riley a moment to realize that she thinks he's asking about alternate dimensions because of whatever it is he does on campus. He still has no idea what that is, but as a ranger, he's definitely having trouble coming up with an idea of a way to get home, so it's not quite a lie when he replies, "Yeah. I really am."

Shelby tells him about a new research grant for physics that might work for a project on theorizing the existence of alternate dimensions. When she finishes, Riley asks her about the one ranger he has yet to encounter in this world.

"Have you seen Koda?"

"Koda?" Shelby asks him. "Who's Koda?"

*

After his lunch with Shelby, Riley gets back into his car. He checks his phone and finds that he has three new messages from Chase: 

_What happened?_

_Where are you? If you want, I'll come meet you._

_I'm getting really worried. Please, Riley. Let me know you're alright._

Riley knows he can't avoid Chase much longer -- not when Chase is so concerned -- not when avoiding Chase is increasing Riley's anxiety instead of keeping it at bay.

He drives back to the apartment, still unsure of what he's supposed to say to Chase. On the way, he turns into a plaza a few blocks from the apartment, parks the car in front of a veterinarian's clinic, and reviews what he's learned. 

He's in an alternate dimension where the rangers don't exist. In this world, Riley never met Tyler or Ms. Morgan, but he and Shelby are friends. This world's Riley works with computers and may or may not be a student at Amber Beach College. Koda might still be in a glacier somewhere or, because of this world's lack of energems, may never have been frozen in the first place. Riley has replaced this world's Riley, who is nowhere to be found and might be back in Riley's own world. And Riley has no idea how to get home.

Also, he and Chase are an item, and have been for quite a while given what Shelby was saying. They live together, hang out together, and are happy to be together.

He's having a hard time processing that dimensional travel is possible, that he's met alternative versions of his friends, and that he doesn't know how to get home, but for completely different reasons, he's also having trouble processing the fact that he and Chase are dating.

Riley knows that it's bothering him so much because it's the only thing in this alternate world that he genuinely wants for himself. It may be selfish, but he wants _his_ Chase to look at him the way this universe's Chase is looking at his Riley in his phone's wallpaper.

Riley sighs. Right now, this world's Chase is worried about his Riley. He has no clue why Riley was acting so strangely, why he ran off in the morning or why Riley is giving him the silent treatment.

Riley is pulled from his thoughts when someone taps on the driver's side window causing him to jump in surprise.

Then Riley jumps again when he gets a good look at who's standing by his car.

Koda is smiling and waving at him through the window. He looks just like his world's Koda except that he's wearing a white lab coat and has a stethoscope around his neck. Riley is immediately relieved that Koda exists in this world too -- that he isn't frozen in ice somewhere or dead for millennia.

Riley undoes his seatbelt and steps out of his car.

"Koda?" he asks.

"Riley," Koda says warmly. "I saw you in parking lot and thought you looked sad. Are you okay? Is Rubik okay?"

"Rubik?" Riley asks. "My dog?"

"Yes," Koda says and laughs. "I'm your vet." He uses his thumb to point at the veterinarian's clinic Riley is parked outside of.

"You're my vet," Riley repeats. He turns the thought over in his mind, and the more he thinks about it, the more he's sure he's never seen Koda interact with animals. 

Koda says, "Seriously. Is Rubik okay?"

"Rubik is fine," he tells Koda.

"Are you fine?" Koda asks him.

"I'm having a rough day," he replies honestly.

Riley's phone beeps, alerting him to a new text message. It doesn't surprise him that it's from Chase. It says, simply: _Riley? Are you there?_

Riley reads it and knows he has to see Chase and at least try to explain him what's going on.

"I have to run," he tells Koda.

Koda frowns at him. "If you want to talk, you always welcome to visit," he says, and digs around in one of his lab coat's pockets. He pulls out a bone-shaped dog treat and holds it out to Riley, surprising him. "For Rubik." 

Riley closes his hands around it. While this world's Riley may not know the same people or even know the same versions of the same people that he does, Riley feels grateful that this world's Riley still has good friends. "Thank you, Koda," he says.

*

Riley stands outside the apartment door. He takes deep breaths for a few minutes before he actually knocks on it.

The door opens revealing Chase, his eyes heavy with worry. "Riley."

Chase says Riley's name like he's letting out a sigh of relief. Chase tugs him into the apartment, and once the door is closed behind them, Chase leans into his space and wraps his arms around him.

Rubik runs up to them, barking excitedly and demanding attention, but Chase doesn't let go. He clings to Riley for what feels like minutes. Then he slides his hands up from Riley's back to his shoulders and pulls back enough to look Riley in the eye. "What happened?" he asks. "Are you alright?" 

All of sudden, the day catches up with Riley -- all the anxiety and fear caused by his arrival in another world and his discovery of all that lay within it.

Riley reaches forward, and although he's well aware that this isn't his Chase, he hugs Chase. He buries his face in Chase's shoulder and tries not to cry. 

"No," Riley admits, his voice muffled by Chase's t-shirt. "I'm not alright. I'm not even your-- I'm not your Riley." Riley feels Chase tense against him. "This world, this apartment, you, even the photos on my phone -- they're not mine. They belong to another Riley. Your Riley."

Chase pulls away and stares at Riley, shock apparent on his face. Riley quickly looks down at Rubik, who is now laying by their feet. Riley knows how ridiculous he must sound, but he forces himself to keep going. "I know you're probably not going to believe me, but I'm from another world -- another dimension -- where we're friends but we're not together. Not like we seem to be in this world."

"Riley--" Chase starts to say, but Riley knows that if he doesn't finish this explanation now, he may not be able to later.

"I got attacked by a monster," Riley tells him. "That's how I got here -- got to this world -- and I need to figure out a way to get home. I'm sorry I made you worry. I didn't mean to. I just woke up with you this morning and I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what to do or what to say. I just... panicked."

He feels like he needs to be honest so he adds, "And it wasn't just that. I like my Chase, but I've never said anything to him about it and I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me. And you -- you surprised me, and also reminded me of what I can't have."

Chase doesn't say anything, so Riley continues, "I don't know where your Riley is. I think he might've ended up in my world. I promise I'll help you look for him. Just. Please believe me."

Riley finally risks looking up at Chase again and he's immediately taken aback by the expression on Chase's face. Given that Riley just told Chase that his boyfriend is likely missing in another dimension and that he's been worrying about a stranger all day, he expects Chase to be shocked, disbelieving or upset. Instead, Chase is smiling at him and looks... pleased.

Chase asks, "You like me?"

"Uh, I like my Chase," Riley admits, starting to feel uneasy about Chase's reaction. "I don't really know you."

Chase huffs and asks, "Are you sure about that?" Then he brings their foreheads together, and tells Riley, "Don't worry. We'll get home. We just need to wake up."

Riley is just starting to process that statement when suddenly everything goes dark again.

*

Riley wakes with a start, shooting up into a sitting position, and immediately knows where he is. He's on a medical table in the command center, and he has no idea how he got here.

"Riley?" Riley turns his head and notices that Shelby and Tyler are standing next to him. 

"Am I back?" Riley asks, reaching for the energem he hopes is around his neck. Some of the tension drains out of him when he wraps his fingers around it. 

He's back. Somehow he made it back.

"Back?" Tyler asks. "Did you go somewhere?"

"Yeah, I was in an alt--" Riley starts to say when he hears someone draw in a loud, desperate-sounding breath. He looks over his shoulder to where Chase seems to be waking up on a second medical table, next to which Koda and Ms. Morgan are standing. Chase sits up and stares at the two of them with wide eyes.

"Good morning, Chase," Ms. Morgan tells him at the same time Koda pats Chase on the back.

Chase seems to take in the commands center, and then his eyes find Riley's and get even wider.

"What happened?" Riley asks, confused and wondering what could've pulled him from the other world.

"Both of you were hit by the same energy attack from Sledge's monster," Ms. Morgan explains.

"Same energy attack?" Riley asks, remembering the way he shielded Chase from a dark purple beam. 

She offers Riley a wry smile. "Sadly, your attempt to protect Chase wasn't entirely successful. We believe that the attack worked by sending vibrations through someone's body. Those same vibrations traveled right through you and affected Chase as well. Though thanks to you, it's likely he wasn't affected as intensely." 

Riley briefly closes his eyes at the thought of failing to save Chase. 

Tyler places a hand on his shoulder. "You did a great job out there," Tyler tells him.

"Tyler's right," Shelby adds. "You had no way of knowing what the attack would do. I think it's admirable that you tried to protect Chase, and I'm sure Chase is grateful. Right, Chase?"

Before Chase has a chance to respond, Ms. Morgan continues, "As I was saying, both of you have been unconscious since the attack. Your brainwaves suggested that you were dreaming, but I couldn't find anything else strange about your vitals. Tyler, Shelby and Koda defeated the monster with the TriStego formation of the megazord about a half hour ago, and I think the monster's demise is what enabled you to wake up."

Riley is glad that the monster has been defeated, but he can't seem to focus on that or anything else, not when Ms. Morgan said--

"It was a dream?" Riley asks. "I thought..." 

"You thought it was another dimension," Chase finishes for him.

Riley slowly turns his head to gape at Chase. "How could you know that?" he asks.

Chase raises an eyebrow at Riley and says, "I'm pretty sure we shared the same dream."

"What?" Riley asks. It couldn't have been a dream, let alone a shared dream, because if it was then Chase--

"It's possible," Ms. Morgan says, interrupting the rush of Riley's thoughts. "You were both hit together. The energy beam could have placed you both in the same dream."

"What'd you dream about?" Shelby asks him.

"Uh," Riley replies unsteadily after a too-long pause. "I guess I thought I was transported to another world." He doesn't know how to explain what happened with Chase or even if he should say anything about Chase at all, so he tells them, "I met all of you, but you were different. Tyler was hiking with his dad, Ms. Morgan was teaching a class at Amber Beach College, Shelby was working on her masters in paleontology, and Koda was a veterinarian."

"And Chase?" Ms. Morgan asks, picking up on his omission.

"Chase and I... lived together," he finishes awkwardly.

"How about you, Chase?" Ms. Morgan asks, turning towards him.

Chase runs a hand through his hair and looks a little ragged when he says, "I had a dream that turned into a nightmare. It was strange. I knew it was a dream. I knew it wasn't real." These words startle Riley and he watches the way Chase's face twists in discomfort as he explains, "But even though I knew it was a dream, I found myself acting like it was real because it felt real."

"What Chase nightmare about?" Koda asks him softly. 

Chase sighs. "I dreamed that I was with someone I liked and that they ran off with no explanation. I was worried about them. I knew something bad had happened to them and I knew they were scared. I searched for them everywhere, trying to find them, and I couldn't. It wasn't pleasant dream, except for the very end."

Riley's heart begins to pound and he can hear his blood rushing in his ears.

"What happened at very end?" Koda asks.

"The person I liked came home," Chase replies. "And they told me they cared for me the way I cared for them."

Chase looks over at Riley, and Riley feels like the air just got sucked out of his lungs.

"How do you know the two of you experienced the same dream?" Ms. Morgan asks.

"Because Riley was there," Chase answers simply.

Riley takes a deep breath and another, but he can't seem to get enough air. He desperately needs a moment to process everything he's just learned. He lowers himself off the medical table, but Shelby stops him with a hand on his arm before he can make a break for it. "You shouldn't be going anywhere," she tells him. "You just woke up."

"Riley looks sick," Koda says.

"Just give me a minute," Riley says, glad his voice sounds much calmer than he feels. "I have to go to the bathroom," he tells them, and he can feel everyone's eyes on him as he walks out of the room on unsteady feet.

*

His back to the wall, Riley sits on the floor just outside the command center's washroom and shower facilities, and buries his face in his hands.

If what Chase said is true, then the Chase he met in what he thought was an alternate universe was actually the Chase he knew. By running away from Chase, Riley didn't cause distress to a Chase from another would, he caused distress to his Chase -- his Chase who was so worried about him that he experienced a nightmare and--

Riley shakes his head in an attempt to clear it.

He remembers the last words Chase said to him in the dream and replays them in his mind until he hears footsteps heading in his direction. He's not surprised when Chase comes around the corner.

"Can we talk?" he asks Riley.

Riley raises his head enough to look up at him over his fingers, and asks, "When did you know it was me, and not just some dream version of myself?" 

"Only at the end," Chase replies, and sits down next to Riley. "When you were talking about alternate dimensions and monsters."

"And how did you know it was a dream?" Riley asks.

"Just a sense, I guess," he says and shrugs. "I knew from the moment that I opened my eyes in the dream that it wasn't real."

"I thought it was real," Riley tells him.

Chase is quiet for a moment before saying, "Maybe it has something to do with what Ms. Morgan said about the intensity of the attack. Because you bore the brunt of it, maybe it didn't affect me as much." Chase gently knocks his shoulder against Riley's. "Thank you for shielding me, by the way. I appreciate it."

"I'm sorry it didn't work," Riley apologizes.

"I think maybe it did, and that you're too hard on yourself," Chase says. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he asks, "Did you know that you were living in my apartment?"

Riley lowers his hands and lifts his head. "What?"

"I have a theory," Chase says. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. He fiddles with it for a moment and then turns it to face Riley. There's a photo on the screen of the living room Riley recognizes from the dream, except it looks emptier. A second later Riley realizes that it looks emptier because all of own his things are missing from the room.

"Before now, you haven't seen any pictures of my apartment, have you?" Chase asks.

"No," Riley replies, confused.

Chase says, "You've mentioned Rubik before, but I've never even seen a photo of him. Did he look the same in the dream as he does in real life?"

"He looked and acted the same as I remember," Riley says.

"And the furniture," Chase continues. "Was any of it yours?"

"Yeah," Riley replies, thinking of his grandmother's chair. He wonders where Chase is going with all of this.

"So it was my actual apartment but your actual stuff was in it, and Rubik is your actual dog," Chase summarizes before arguing, "I think the dream world was made up of a mixture of both of our thoughts and memories."

Riley suddenly recalls the way Ms. Morgan's lecture seemed like it came out of a book he read once. He thinks about the way Shelby could only tell him what he already knew about her own device and about alternate dimensions. He remembers the way Tyler's dad looked like he had stepped out of photograph.

He also recalls Amber Beach campus and its café, the plaza, and the vet. They're places Riley's never been, and he figures that they, along with the apartment, must've come from Chase's thoughts and memories. Likewise, the dream's version of Koda must've come from Chase too.

The more Riley thinks about it, the more he realizes that there were signs it was a dream. In hindsight, it seems strange that the only people he seemed to run into were his fellow rangers and Ms. Morgan.

"We shared a dream," Riley says, and he feels like he's truly comprehending this for the first time.

"And I don't think it was an accident that we were living together," Chase says. "Or that we were together in other ways. Think about it. If the dream world was created by merging both of our thoughts--"

"--then us being together must've been something we've both thought about," Riley finishes for him. And if it was something that they've _both_ thought about...

Riley stares at Chase and feels something light and joyous in his chest. His heart starts to pound again, but this time, it doesn't feel distressing. "Does this mean that you, uh...?"

Chase smiles. "Very much so. I just didn't think you were interested."

"I'm interested," Riley admits. "I thought you weren't."

"I know," Chase says. "You told me, remember? In the dream, you said that you liked your Chase."

Riley can hear the wonder he feels reflected in his voice when he says, "You're my Chase." 

Chase slowly turns his body to face Riley. He leans into Riley's personal space, puts his arms around him, and clings to him like he did when Riley returned to the apartment. He burrows his face in Riley's hair, and against his ear, Chase says softly, "You're my Riley."

That light and joyous feeling spreads from Riley's chest throughout his entire body all the way to his fingers and toes. Riley wraps his own arms around Chase and clings back. 

When they pull apart, Chase grins, wide and bright, but a moment later his smile transforms into a playful smirk. "Does this mean you'll say yes if I ask you out?" 

Riley snorts, surprised. It's just like Chase to interrupt a moment they're having to ask someone out on a date. But in this case, it's _Riley_ he's asking out, and Riley finds himself smiling for the first time all day. 

"I think we both know my answer," he tells Chase.

"But I want to hear your answer," Chase says before asking again, "Will you go out with me?"

"Yes," Riley says. "Of course my answer is yes."

Chase beams at him. Then he stands and offers a hand to Riley. Riley accepts it, and uses it to bring himself to his feet.

"How's Friday?" Riley asks eagerly, surprising himself. "You free after work?"

Chase's grin gets even wider. "Absolutely," he replies, and throws an arm around Riley's shoulders as he directs them back towards the lab. 

Riley knows that it's going to take him a long time to process everything that's happened today -- from the monster attack, to the dream world, to Chase asking him out -- but as they approach the lab, Chase offers him a warm, reassuring smile, and the overwhelming stresses of the day seem a little less overwhelming.


End file.
